MLA Documentation

1
MLA Documentation

• Presented by the Teaching Learning Center using
  
• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 6th
  Edition

2
Avoiding Plagiarism

• Keep careful notes during research and reading
• Cite sources both correctly and accurately
• This actually serves 2 purposes

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You have plagiarized if

• You present wording as if it is your own
• You copy text into your paper without citation or
  quotation marks
• You present facts without acknowledgment of where
  you found them
• You paraphrased someone without acknowledgment

4
The Details

• Do not reproduce any unusual typographic
  characteristics when citing the title of a
  published work
• Example MODERNISM ATTITUDE
• Citation Modernism and Attitude

5
Rules for capitalizing titles

• Capitalize the first word, the last word, and all
  principal words nouns, pronouns, verbs,
  adjectives, adverbs, subordinating conjunctions.
• Do not capitalize articles, prepositions, or
  coordinating conjunctions unless they are the
  first or last words in the title.

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Examples of Capitalization

• The Flowers of Europe
• Save Our Children
• The Mouse That Roared
• Only Slightly Corrupt
• One If by Land
• The Merchant of Venice
• Romeo and Juliet

7
Underlined Titles

• Books, plays, long poems published as books,
  pamphlets, periodicals, films, television
  programs, compact disks, paintings, works of
  sculpture.
• Underlining is not broken between words.
• Example The Waste Land
• Wall Street Journal
• Star Trek

8
Titles in Quotation Marks

• Use quotation marks for works within larger
  works articles, essays, short stories, short
  poems, chapters, episodes of television programs,
  and songs
• Examples The Lottery
• Rise in Aid to Education
• The Trouble with Tribbles

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Exceptions

• Underlining and quotation marks do not apply to
  the names of sacred writings (including all books
  and versions of the Bible)
• Examples Bible Gospels
• Old Testament
• Genesis Koran
• Talmud Upanishads

10
Use of Quotations

• Overquotation can bore your readers and lead them
  to think that you are not an original thinker.
• When used, quotes must be exact reproductions of
  the original source.
• If changes are needed, they must be indicated by
  brackets or parenthesis.
• Example Milton speaks of his study pursuit
  of revenge.

11
Long Quotes

• If a quotation runs more than 4 lines in your
  paper, set it off by beginning a new line,
  indenting 1 inch from the left margin, and typing
  it double-spaced, without adding quotation marks.
  

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Example of Long Quote

• At the conclusion of Lord of the Flies, Ralph
  and the other boys realized the horror of their
  actions
• The tears began to flow and sobs
• shook him. He gave himself up to
• them now for the first time on the
• island great, shuddering spasms
• of grief. (186)

13
The Ellipsis

• If omitting material from the original source, an
  ellipsis may be needed.
• An ellipsis is a series of three periods with a
  space before each and a space after the last ( .
  . . )

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Examples of Ellipsis Usage

• Tuchman writes, Medical thinking . . . stressed
  air as the communicator of disease (101-102).
• Rivers notes, Presidential control reached is
  zenith under Andrew Jackson. . . . For a time,
  the United States Telegraph and the Washington
  Globe were equally favored (7).

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Omission of Words in Poetry

• Omission of words in poetry is also indicated by
  an ellipsis unless you are omitting a full line
  or more. This is set off by a line of spaced
  periods approximately the length of a complete
  line from the poem being quoted.

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Example of Omitting a Line or More

• Bishops In the Waiting Room is rich in
  detail
• I went with Aunt Consuelo
• to keep her dentists appointment
• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
  . . . .
• It was winter. It got dark
• early. (1-3, 6-7)

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Punctuation with Quotations

• Quoted material is usually preceded by a colon or
  comma, but it can use no punctuation if it is an
  integral part of the sentence structure.
• Examples Shelley held the view Poets are the
  unacknowledged legislators of the World (794).
• Poets, according to Shelly, are the
  unacknowledged legislators of the World (794).
• Shelley thought poets the unacknowledged
  legislators of the World (794).

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Inside or Outside the Quotation Marks?

• Commas and periods that directly follow
  quotations go inside the closing quotation marks,
  but a parenthetical reference should intervene
  between the quotation and the required
  punctuation.
• Example Momadays House Made of Dawn begins
  with an image that also concludes the novel
  Abel was running (7).

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Other Punctuation

• Semicolons, colons, question marks, and
  exclamation points go outside a closing quotation
  mark, except when they are part of the quoted
  material.
• Example Did he attack taxation without
  representation?
• He declared, I believe taxation without
  representation is tyranny!

20
Printing the Paper

• Standard typeface and size (Times Roman, 12
  point)
• Do not justify the lines of your paper to the
  right margin
• Except for page numbers, leave margins of 1 inch
  at the top, bottom, and sides of the text
• Double-space throughout the paper

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Heading and Title

• Unless otherwise instructed, you need no title
  page.
• Beginning 1 inch from the top of the first page
  and flush with the left margin, type your name,
  your instructors name, the course number, and
  the date each on separate lines, double-spacing
  between each.
• Double-space again and center the title

22
The Title

• Do not underline it
• Do not put it in bold
• Do not enlarge the font
• Do not put it in quotes
• Do not type it in all CAPITAL LETTERS
• Do not place extra line spaces before or after it.

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Example

• 1
• inch

½ inch down
Laura N. Josephson Professor Bennett Humanities
2710 8 May 2003 Ellingtons Adventures in Music
In studying the influence of Latin American,
African, and Asian music on modern American
composers, music historians tend to discuss such
figures as Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Henry
Josephson 1
1 inch
Indent ½ inch
24
Page Numbers

• Number all pages consecutively in the upper
  right-hand corner, ½ inch from the top and flush
  with the right margin (which should be set on 1
  inch)
• Type your last name and then the page number

25
Your Works Cited Page

• 1
• inch

½ inch down
Josephson 15
Works Cited Brindle, Reginald Smith. The
Search Outwards The Orient, Jazz,
archaisms. The New Music The Avant-Garde
since 1945. New York Oxford UP,
1975. 133-45.
Indent ½ inch
1 inch
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Arrangement of Entries

• Alphabetize entries in the list of works cited by
  the authors last name, using the
  letter-by-letter system.
• Examples Descartes, Rene
• De Sica, Vittorio
• MacDonald, George
• McCullers, Carson

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Works by More Than One Author

• Alphabetize by the last names of the authors
  listed.
• Example
• Shols, Robert, and Robert Kellogg
• Shols, Robert, Carl Klaus, and Mich Silver
• Shols, Robert, and Eric Rabkin

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If the Author Is Unknown

• Alphabetize by the title, ignoring any initial A,
  An, or The.
• Example
• Descartes, Rene.
• Encyclopedia of the Latin-American Novel, A
• Fukuyama, Francis.

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The Basic Works Cited Entry

• Book by a Single Author
• Authors name. Title of the book. Publication
• information.
• Fukuyama, Francis. Our Posthuman Future. New
• York Farrar, 2002.

30
Two or More Books by Author

• Give the name of the author in the first entry
  only. Thereafter, in place of the name, type 3
  hyphens (---) followed by a period and the title.
• Works listed under the same name are alphabetized
  by title.

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Example

• Borroff, Marie. Language and the Past.
  Chicago U of Chicago P, 1979.
• ---, trans. Sir Gawain and the Green
• Knight. New York Norton, 1967
• ---, ed. Wallace Stevens A Collection of
• Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs
• Prentice, 1963.

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Books by Two or More Authors

• Give their names in the same order as on the
  title page not alphabetical order.
• Only reverse the name of the first author.
• Place a period after the last name.
• You must write and instead of

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Example

• Eggins, Suzanne, and Diana Slade.
• Analysing Casual Conversation. London
• Cassell, 1997.
• Hutcheon, Linda, and Michael Hutcheon.
• Bodily Charm. Lincoln U of Nebraska P,
• 2000.
• Marquart, James W., Sheldon Ekland Olson,
• and Jonathan R. Sorenson. No Place
• Else. Carbondale Southern Illinois UP,
• 1983.

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More than Three Authors

• You may give only the name of the first and add
  et al. (and others), or you may give all the
  names in the order they appear on the title page.
• Example
• Gilman, Sander, et al. Hysteria. Berkeley
• U of California P, 1993.

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Citing Electronic Publications

• Authors name. Title of the document.
• Information about print publication.
• Information about electronic publication.
• Access information.
• Zeki, Semir. Artistic Creativity and the
  Brain.
• Science 6 July 2001 51-52. Science
• Magazine. 2002 Amer. Assn. for the
• Advancement of Science. 24 Sept. 2002
• lthttp//www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/
• 293/5527/51gt

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